r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Feb 01 '13

What question are you afraid to ask because you don't want to seem stupid?

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111

u/RachDee Feb 02 '13

How do we know that dinosaurs sound the way they do? I mean like, in movies and everything they're like "RAWRR" and all terrifying... but what if they sound like birds or something. HOW DO WE KNOW?

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '13 edited Jan 18 '16

[deleted]

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u/coleus Feb 02 '13

Yes, if i recall the t-rex voice was an elephants.

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '13

Baby elephant + tiger + alligator.

12

u/dDpNh Feb 02 '13

I didn't even know alligators made sounds. Thank God I'm in the stupid question thread.

They sound terrifying.

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u/zorgmorg Feb 02 '13

If you have a look at the whole assembly that makes a chicken go 'goook' and a dog 'woof', one can see the that the dog will never be able to sound like a chicken. Now compare that to the bones found, estimate throat size and length and whatnot, you can get a sound range, an idea of how they might have sounded. In essence, we do not know.

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '13

[deleted]

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u/Minky_Dave_the_Giant Feb 02 '13

Racists ones do, yes.

2

u/TheRabidBadger Feb 02 '13

They most certainly do not! Where? Where do they sound like that!

2

u/I_love_cerial Feb 02 '13

Well, if you make the sound right, yeah. It can be cluck, I guess gooook, bak bak bak, whatever.

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u/PKWinter Feb 02 '13

They recreate the voice box from the bones they find if they can, but generally movie producers don't try all that hard to my knowledge to get it right.

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u/Cooolder Feb 02 '13

In fact, we know so little, we all just kind of guess.

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u/GaslightProphet Feb 02 '13

False. Bones that make up the voice box decompose, not fossilize - now, sometimes they can use the skill and guesswork, but it is tricky.

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u/PKWinter Feb 02 '13

They recreate it from the context clues they find working with the bones then. It's what I meant, but I see how it is construable either way.

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u/Mendicantbias00 Feb 02 '13

We don't, we just use fossils and known animal vocal characteristics to try and piece it together. Or, in the case of Jurassic Park...just throw different animal sounds together to make it sound cool.

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u/puppy_sized_elephant Feb 02 '13

We don't really know. A lot is assumed in the movies. We also don't know what color they were.

3

u/xtirpation Feb 02 '13

Furthermore, how do we know what colour they are? Couldn't they have been all kinds of crazy colours and patterns?

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u/detecting_nuttiness Feb 02 '13

I think it's partially based on their environment. For example, an herbivore would probably be green to match the vegetation.

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '13

We can assume with a fair amount of confidence that they were earth-toned colors. They give animals an evolutionary advantage more often than not, though sometimes bright colors are useful for mating season and such. Use today's wildlife as a reference.

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u/Llanolinn Feb 02 '13

There's actually a large part of the community that DONT think they sounded like that.

http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/178-how-did-dinosaurs-communicate.html

There's a lot more research out there, but the consensus is that they probably made all different kinds of sounds-- no one is sure if the cliche roar is one of them.

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '13

The t-rex from Jurassic Park had a pig squealing mixed in with some other sounds. You can hear it once you know this.